How to Check Your Software Development Costs Estimation

Victor Osetskyi
EXISTEK
Published in
3 min readAug 29, 2017

Accurate software development costs estimation is a crucial factor for the success of any project. Software development companies provide you with schedules to outside stakeholders, such as finance and PR teams, that get ready for a roll-out as per your guidelines, and help you with job prioritization so you can finish them more effectively.

Existek is a custom software development company helping our customers to solve their business challenges with best in its class software. Our team specializes in mobile development, web development, desktop development, business automation & intelligence development. Contact us to get an instant and free expert consultation about your custom software development project.

However, regardless of how important proper estimates are, these money and time guidelines are rarely on point. Let’s assess some figures.

According to recent surveys:

  • 67% of all projects are under-planed by 290%
  • 1% of all projects meet time, budget, and scope goals
  • 60% of all projects over 50k lines of code canceled before the competition

As shown, just a single percent of projects fall within their intended estimates. Such failures between reality and estimations are substantial.

Gallup approximates that in the US, rates for IT failures based on incorrect estimates and overruns range between 5 and 15%, which comes out to $50 billion and $150 billion per year.

The accuracy of software estimates is vital, but how can you ensure you’re contracted to a software development company that estimates project delivery time realistically and correctly? Here are several aspects to take into consideration to validate the software development costs estimation accuracy:

Think of the software development costs estimation with a specific schedule for all the project’s factors

If the software development group has given you an unclear estimate lacking specific job breakdowns, they might have neglected aspects that will extend the duration of the project. Such typically unaccounted-for variables are comprised of meetings, time off, final tests, debugging, and code assessments, among others. Request a detailed estimate, and if you aren’t given one, consider replacing that group with one that comprehends how critical each development phase is.

Request an Explanation of Their Selected Price Estimation Model

There are several individual price estimation modeling systems, many of which result in different estimates. If a software development group has provided you with a price estimation that lacks explanations, ask them to break down what aspects make up their proposal. For instance, a SEER-SEM (SEER for Software) software development costs estimation that uses knowledge bases and algorithms are inclined to offer a different estimation from one based on Putnam’s SLIM (Software Life-Cycle Management).

Learn the Development Group’s Skill Set and Project Familiarity

Consult your development group about the skills required for the project. If the software development costs estimation contains some specialized skills, your development group would probably require additional members with unique abilities to be on hand. If you think your group isn’t being truthful about their understanding of their skills needed for the development, or they claim they can complete the project as fast as any other project, this discrepancy should raise red flags.

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Rich expertise in various industries and advanced software development approach allow Existek to provide our customers with precise evaluation for the wide range of projects. Get in touch with us today for an accurate software development costs estimation.

Download “2020 Global Custom Software Development Rates” to get a comprehensive analysis of the pricing in the three most popular onshore and offshore outsourcing locations. Hourly rates cards for these territories are included.

Existek is a custom software development company helping our customers to solve their business challenges with best in its class software. All-out technology expertise, including the provision of Flutter application development services, .NET development, Java development, web development, etc. Contact us to get an instant and free expert consultation about your custom software development project.

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Victor Osetskyi
EXISTEK

Full-cycle software development company. Latest company and industry news.